Games Industry International offers an interesting article on 2015 predictions about the video games industry from four of the most prominent analysts covering the sector including Michael Pachter from Wedbush Securities, independent analyst Billy Pidgeon, David Cole from DFC Intelligence, and Patrick Walker from EEDAR.

There's a lot to unpack in this article, but here's a brief overview of the predictions from each analyst:

According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, the Xbox One outsold the PS4 at retail during the month of September. According to GamesBeat, the outspoken analyst estimates that Microsoft sold 325,000 new Xbox Ones at U.S. retail last month, while Sony sold 250,000 PS4s.

If Pachter's estimates hold up (retail numbers for the month of September will be released on Thursday), September will be the very first month since launch that the Xbox One has beaten the PS4 at retail.

According to a research note from Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter to investors, game sales dipped 20 percent on the weakness of current generation sales in the month of January. Pachter is making his predictions ahead of the NPD Groups' retail report for the month of January. When those numbers are released on Thursday, Pachter says that they will show that retail software sales fell 20 percent in January to around $300 million - down 20 percent from the $373 million generated in the same period a year ago.

In the latest edition of Bonus Round, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that Sony and Microsoft will likely slash the price of their last generation consoles in February. Pachter went on to claim that publishers have threatened to stop supporting the last generation consoles if platform holders didn't start cutting the price of their systems.

Speaking at the Game Monetization USA Summit in San Francisco this week, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata should be fired for his handling of the Wii U and the company in general.

"I don't know why Iwata is still employed," Pachter said during his presentation, according to a GamesIndustry International report, adding that the Wii U’s commercial performance has been "underwhelming” and that he believed it was “possible but unlikely” that new titles could help the system to recover.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter estimates that Sony, who has promised "substantial resupplies" of the PlayStation 4 consoles in North America before the end of 2013, is making one million units per month. Pachter says that Sony is shipping about one million units to North America per month, with about half of those units going to retailer GameStop.

According to Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, Microsoft could cut the price of the Xbox One a year or so after launch. Pachter thinks that the Xbox One bundle offers more value because it includes the new Kinect - even if it is $100 more than the PlayStation 4.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter does not believe that third-party Xbox One game publishers will disable used games using the system Microsoft has put in place to do just that on its next-generation platform. Pachter goes so far as to say that any publisher that disables used games runs a serious risk of significant backlash or boycotts from consumers. In a note to investors today, Pachter said the majority of publishers will not block used games in the system's first few years.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said in a preview note sent out to investors late last week that not even a price cut to Nintendo's Wii U will help it sell more units. He also predicts that Nintendo will report another month of weak sales for the console later this week.

Speaking to GamesIndustry International, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter says that Nintendo's continued weakness contributed to 11 percent of the decline in U.S. video game sector in the month of December. Pachter also said that there was evidence that consumer fatigue has set in - even when it comes to popular games like Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

This is sure to put analyst Michael Pachter on someone's naughty list: Recently he said that Activision needs to start charging a fee for the multiplayer portion of its Call of Duty games. Wedbush Securities industry analyst Michael Pachter made his comments during the Digital Game Monetization Summit in San Francisco, California (as reported by GamesIndustry International). During his presentation he said that Activision made a serious mistake when it didn't implement a subscription-based model for Call of Duty multiplayer.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that Electronic Arts and Activision's mismanagement of big first-person shooter titles could end up contributing to another month of "terrible" software sales for the game industry in October. He is referring to Medal of Honor: Warfighter, a game that was supposed to be a major release for EA in October and Activision's 007 Legends, which fared worse than Medal of Honor.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter expects that Microsoft’s next-generation "Xbox 720" console will be released in the Spring of 2014, adding that he expects the new console to function much like a set top box. Anyone that has followed Microsoft in the last ten years knows that the company has been working on a set top box strategy for a very long time - even before it considered making a video game console.

Pachter adds that he does not believe the speculation on a late 2013 release.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes that Microsoft and Sony may very well cut the price of their respective consoles at some point but are waiting to see what the retail price of the Wii U will be so they can respond accordingly.

"I think both Microsoft and Sony are waiting to see Wii U pricing. If it is over $300, they don't need to cut." Pachter tells C&VG.

According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter unlocking downloadable content that is already present on a retail game disc when you by it might not be illegal. On the latest edition of his GameTrailers TV show " Pach Attack," Pachter also says that it shows the greediness of developers and publishers in some ways.

If 38 Studios is forced to sell the IP related to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and the MMO Project Copernicus (set in the same universe), one wonders how much both properties would be worth. Joystiq decided to ask Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter for a valuation and he came to the conclusion that 38 Studios' IP is worth about $20 million.

THQ expected that bringing its popular Wii drawing peripheral, uDraw, to other platforms would be lucrative. Earlier this year they announced that the uDraw would be coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3. With the peripheral out and in stores, it looks like THQ isn't getting the kind of returns they expected. The company said yesterday that sales for the third quarter would be down around 25 percent and blames weak sales of the drawing peripheral for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, Activision's Modern Warfare 3 will sell ten percent more copies than Call of Duty Black Ops. He estimates that the game will rake in $1.1 billion in its first six weeks on store shelves. Pachter also predicts that the Call of Duty Elite premium service could pull in up to 4 million subscribers by the end of the year. Of course, he probably didn't know at the time that it wouldn't be available for PC users. That may throw a wrench into the gears of his calculation machine.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter loves to make predictions, and when he does, he goes big. Two of the biggest games this year - Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 - are set to launch in North America and Pachter has a big number that he believes both games will hit. Pachter believes that Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 will generate more than $1.4 billion combined by the end of the year.

In light of the accusations of horrible working conditions that L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi has garnered of late (excessive hours, no overtime pay, employees cut out of the game’s credits), do game developers need labor rights? Should they have a union?

While LA Noire has proven to be a decent tile for Take-Two, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says that the poor showing of Duke Nukem Forever has eaten away at those profits. In a note to investors today, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter lowered his expectation for Take-Two's quarterly revenues, saying that bad performance from Gearbox Studios' Duke Nukem Forever have offset the stronger-than-expected sales of Rockstar's L.A. Noire.

"We had previously expected Duke to be one of the year's top sellers due to a high degree of hype and a dedicated fan base, and expected solid profit contribution as the bulk of development had been previously expensed," Pachter told investors. "However, the game's poor reviews (average Metacritic score of 49) likely had a negative impact on sales, causing us to lower our [first quarter] sell-in estimate to 1.5 million units from 3 million units."

Christian video game publisher Left Behind Games has increased guidance upwards by 30 percent for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2011. LBG expects $1.3 million in annual revenue as a result of significant interest in our products - according to CEO Troy Lyndon.

The company also gave credit to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter for some of that newfound interest in its products:

"On February 24, 2010, Michael Pachter, Research Analyst at Wedbush Securities stated, 'I think that the Christian video game market is a significant market currently underserved by traditional publishers.' Since the time of Pachter’s quote, LB Games has grown in revenues by more than 1000 percent and gained national retail distribution through Synnex, a billion dollar funding, fulfillment and distribution partner introduced to LB Games by Walmart. LB Games products are also available online at Walmart.com and BestBuy.com."

Journalist Tracey John and analyst Michael Pachter guest star in The Escapist feature, The Crystal Ball of Michael Pachter. No matter what you think of the outspoken Wedbush Morgan video game analyst, this interview / feature from Tracey John sheds some light on what Pachter does on any given weekday and how he manipulates the media to promote himself.

Here is the part where he shows his humility and admits that he uses the press:

"Investors should [listen to me] because I'm really good, but look, I use the press," he admitted when I asked why we should listen to him. "It's a symbiotic relationship. I try to give you guys what you need, and I use the press to promote myself so that more investors want to talk to me. That helps me get paid more money."

Michael Pachter, gaming research analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, says that schemes to recoup cash from used game buyers doesn't seem to be having an impact on sales at GameStop. In a post-financials report on the retailer, Pachter said that the country's largest games retailer remained unscathed in its latest quarter and that aggressive code-based schemes for used games weren't hurting the retailer’s bottom line. This could be because most of these schemes from EA and THQ (in a small measure) are targeting multiplayer, which GameStop says only 25 percent of used game buyers are interested in.

"The company has not seen a negative impact on used software sales from first-use codes or new competitors in the space," Pachter said. "The company estimates that only 25 per cent of used game buyers play online.”

Naturally EA and THQ have just barely rolled out such schemes on a couple of titles. We'll see how it affects used games sales of titles like the latest Madden game in the next quarter. Pachter also shared his pessimism on GameStop’s plan to create a digital market space to sell DLC.

Wedbush analysts Michael Pachter and Edward Woo, who no longer think that the video game industry is "recession proof" (remember that?) are now saying that the new hardware introduced during E3 last week in Los Angeles has the potential to reinvigorate the sector. The major hurdle, they say, is pricing. The Wedbush duo were apparently most impressed with the Nintendo 3DS, which provides gamers (not under the age of 7, says Nintendo, because 3D is the devil to your eyes at that tender age) with 3D gaming and entertainment without the need for goofy 3D glasses. The 3DS is rumored to have a price point of $250 or more, but the pair do not believe it will matter, saying that Nintendo will sell millions of units.

Microsoft's Kinect, on the other hand, will have to be priced reasonably to sell, they believe:

A pilot program that does just that is being tested at a Best Buy location in Utah. While it sounds like a good deal for consumers, Wedbush-Morgan analyst Michael Pachter doesn't expect to see the Best Buy experiment gain traction on a large scale.

Of the program, under which Best Buy will match used game prices in effect at either GameStop or Game Crazy, Pachter said:

I don’t think it will do well. The price match means that Best Buy either cuts their profit per game in half, or wipes it out altogether. I don’t think that they can afford to sell $60 games for $50, and don’t think that it will be effective in the long run. If it does well, then GameStop will cut used game prices to the point where Best Buy can’t match without losing money.

Yesterday's GamePolitics report detailing a University of Michigan economist's estimate that EA's exclusive NFL deal cost Madden buyers as much as $926 million raised a number of eyebrows, including those attached to the forehead of Michael Pachter (left).

In an e-mail exchange with GamePolitics, the Wedbush-Morgan analyst scoffed at the monopoly theory offered by Dr. Jeffrey MacKie-Mason in a filing last week with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. MacKie-Mason was hired as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in a class-action suit filed in 2008 by a pair of gamers who allege that EA exploited its exclusive NFL deal to jack up the price of its popular Madden series.

Here's what Pachter had to say:

What kind of fool is this U of Michigan economics professor? ...Madden (according to NPD) sold 23 million units in 2006 - 2009, not the 30 million that Dr. MacKie-Mason claims... The total retail sales were $1.034 billion, meaning that EA's cut was around $800 million (retail margin is 20%). How in the world does [MacKie-Mason] conclude that EA overcharged by more than they generated?

For the four year period, EA's average retail price was $44. For the period 1995 - 2005 (when either Sega or Take-Two provided [NFL 2K series] competition), EA generated $1.548 billion of sales on 36 million units, for an average price of $43. In other words, WITH competition, the price was $43, and WITHOUT competition, the price was $44.18...

I rarely read anything that gets me so incensed... They may have some odd estimates I'm not aware of, but based on what you printed, they should be embarrassed. You can quote me.

Here's more: Take-Two discounted [NFL 2K5] to $19.99 to gain market share, and lost their butts in the process. It's the same as a dollar menu at McDonald's that is a loss leader in order to gain share, and McDonald's hopes people buy the high-margin soft drink. There is no "right" among consumers to receive a perpetual discount just because one retailer decides to discount below cost...

It strikes me as irresponsible that the professor would focus on the NFL exclusive as if there is some god-given right for consumers to have all intellectual property available for exploitation by any business that chooses to do so in the name of competition...

The ONLY I/P that has ever been licensed to multiple video game parties is team sports. The NFL, Major League Baseball, FIFA, and NCAA Basketball have all chosen to go the exclusive route for games, similar to the contracts for all movie-based games.

GP: As GamePolitics reported yesterday, MacKie-Mason acknowledges that his analysis is based on incomplete data. In a response filing, attorneys for EA (who were similarly contemptuous of MacKie-Mason's theory) agreed to furnish available documentation dating back to 2001.

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Wymorence: For me it just boils down to the fact that, even at a giant company, when a game comes out annually it just gives it a vibe of being rushed out the door. And god knows Unity sucked some major lemur with all its bugs...03/31/2015 - 4:22pm

PHX Corp: I launched my spotify account today, and I kinda went a little overboard with adding music03/31/2015 - 3:59pm

Sora-Chan: Con't. Games like AC are a pain to someone like me who likes to play games in order. So when a game gets too many releases too quickly, it puts me off. Only exceptions are games that have no interconnected underlying stories like the FF games.03/31/2015 - 2:53pm

Sora-Chan: Wikipedia has rarely let me down on matters like this. But yeah... AC needs a break.. like two.. or three... or eight years.03/31/2015 - 2:51pm

Conster: There's 9 already?! I think I played 1, 2, and the ones inbetween 2 and 3.03/31/2015 - 2:23pm

Sora-Chan: Con't There are now Nine... of just the main entries into the series. There are 13 more in the "other games" department.03/31/2015 - 2:15pm

Sora-Chan: I tried to get into AC. Was having a decent time with the first one, at which point they had already released three titles. Then a fourth came out... then a fifth... the wall kept growing before I could finish the first.03/31/2015 - 2:14pm

Daniel Lewis: I think ubisoft should give AC a break before it's milked to death,and i'm a big fan of the games03/31/2015 - 1:15pm

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/why-a-tekken-7-character-is-being-called-a-phoney-1694724959 Why a Tekken 7 Character Is Being Called a Phoney03/31/2015 - 10:08am